The News: The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) has launched “The Wisconsin Education Comeback: A Roadmap for Student Success” a series of reports to reform education in Wisconsin. The roadmap will aim to provide a comprehensive set of K-12 education reforms for the next Governor and legislature to tackle.

The first report titled, “The FORT Gap: How Inconsistent Teacher Preparation Is Fueling Wisconsin’s Literacy and Educator Crises”, discusses how inconsistencies in teacher preparation are fueling Wisconsin’s literacy crisis and teachers shortage.

The Foundations of Reading Test (FORT) serves as a useful diagnostic tool for identifying this gap. Required for licensure in Elementary and Middle School Education, Middle Childhood-Early Adolescence, and Special Education, the FORT measures whether teaching candidates understand the five core components of evidence-based reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Inconsistent passage rates across universities reveal significant disparities in how effectively teacher preparation programs are training future educators. These gaps are directly exacerbating Wisconsin’s teacher shortage.

The Quote: WILL Research Director, Will Flanders stated, “Wisconsin is facing a growing literacy challenge marked by stagnant or declining reading proficiency and a strained teacher workforce. While these issues are often treated separately, they are actually closely connected. At the center is a systemic gap in teacher preparation—particularly in equipping educators with the knowledge and skills aligned with the “Science of Reading.”

Key Findings:

  1. Teacher preparation is a root cause of both low reading proficiency and teacher shortages, with inconsistent training in the Science of Reading limiting both educator effectiveness and workforce supply.
  2. Wide disparities in FORT passage rates across universities highlight uneven program quality. Passage rates vary from 100% to 25%. The highest and lowest passage rates are shown in the table below.

A balanced policy approach—combining transparency, accountability, and incentives—can improve outcomes by strengthening preparation programs without lowering licensure standards.

Mixed Results Across Wisconsin: New analysis of teacher preparation programs in Wisconsin by the National Council on Teacher Quality shows mixed progress following the implementation of Act 20, which requires science-based reading instruction. While several universities significantly improved their ratings, others stagnated or declined, highlighting ongoing challenges and suggesting that additional reforms may be needed to strengthen teacher training statewide.

What’s Next: WILL is calling on the next Governor and legislature to adopt a three-part reform agenda: requiring DPI to publicly report university-level FORT passage rates annually, placing chronically underperforming programs on probation, and creating Literacy Excellence Grants to reward institutions that excel. Together, these reforms would strengthen the teacher pipeline and ensure Wisconsin students receive reading instruction grounded in the Science of Reading.

The FORT Gap is the first installment in WILL’s Wisconsin Education Comeback series—a comprehensive agenda for reform that will continue with additional reports on K-12 policy in the months ahead.

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